The Dean's reflection: April

Welcome to the third Dean’s Reflection.

These reflections are intended to firstly, provide a teaching and learning lens on the challenges and opportunities facing the College; secondly, build shared understanding and context on education developments and thirdly, support meaningful dialogue. At a time of change to the Fellowship, this month’s reflection focuses on the importance of data in education decision making.

Thank you to those who have been in touch since the last edition. 

Learning the system; expanding the view

During the first 45 days as Dean, my focus has been on learning how educational processes operate within the Education Department in Melbourne. Over the second phase, I have been extending that focus to better understand activity across Branches and other parts of the College.

In this context, I recently met with the Victorian Branch Committee. I was struck by the strength of local initiatives, including practical and well developed approaches to supporting Specialist International Medical Graduates through Directors of Training (DOTs), and innovative thinking about extensions into the pre vocational space. These are exactly the kinds of developments needed to strengthen training pipelines and support workforce sustainability.

Alignment, partnerships, and education

One meeting that particularly resonated was with the RANZCP Foundation Committee, chaired by Professor John Allan. The Foundation exists to attract philanthropic investment and direct it towards advancing psychiatry through research and other related initiatives. The work is impressive with over $600,000 in fundraising revenue obtained in 2025.

What became clear in that discussion was the strong alignment between the Foundation’s work and the educational direction we are pursuing. Over the coming years, education will increasingly rely on a balance of innovation and implementation. This opens opportunities such as medical education grants to support scholarship, strengthening academic education and research workforce pipelines and fostering a stronger learning community across the College through aligned seminars. Education and research share a common learning purpose: both are committed to evaluation, improvement and impact. 

Making better use of data

This brings me to data. The College already collects a substantial amount of information relevant to education and training. The challenge is not collection, but how we leverage data to inform sound educational decisions and continuous improvement.

Too often in the education ecosystem, decisions are driven by assumptions or ideology rather than evidence. A core commitment of my role as Dean is to better use the data we already hold to directly inform and improve teaching and learning. I am grateful to Mr Carlos Ortegon, Manager, Business Analysis and Evaluation and his team, and the Committee for Education Evaluation, Monitoring and Reporting (CEEMR) in analysing the data we hold both internally and externally (login required) (e.g. analysis of Medical Training Survey and Torohia Medical Training Survey). 

In the Education Team we would particularly welcome suggestions about data you would like available to better support our shared work. Examples might include data on supervision quality, training experiences across settings, assessment burden, wellbeing, progression through training, or preparedness for practice. 

In this regard, the information below, which outlines the areas of practice in which our trainees are currently training in April 2026, provides a useful illustration.

Training Placements for RANZCP Fellowship across areas of practice and stages (April 2026)

• Adult Psychiatry: 840 total (158 in Stage 1, 339 in Stage 2 and 343 in Stage 3)
• Adult Psychiatry acute setting: 441 total (322 in Stage 1, 57 in Stage 2 and 62 in Stage 3)
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: 368 total (218 in Stage 2 and 150 in Stage 3)
• Consultation–Liaison Psychiatry: 295 total (227 in Stage 2 and 68 in Stage 3)
• Psychiatry of Old Age: 183 total (77 in Stage 2 and 106 in Stage 3) 
• Addiction Psychiatry: 103 total (21 in Stage 2 and 82 in Stage 3) 
• Forensic Psychiatry: 92 total (26 in Stage 2, 66 in Stage 3)
• Psychotherapies: 14 in total and in Stage 3
• Indigenous Mental Health – Australia: 7 total (3 in Stage 2 and 4 in Stage 3) 
• Medical Administration: 7 total and in Stage 3
• Research: 7 total (1 in Stage 2 and 6 in Stage 3)
• Medical Education: 6 total and in Stage 3
• Indigenous Mental Health – New Zealand: 4 total and in Stage 2

Total of 2,367 trainees: 480 Stage 1 trainees, 973 Stage 2 trainees, 914 Stage 3 trainees.

As we design a new Fellowship Program, this type of nuanced data is critical to make deeper insights. It helps us consider whether training experiences align with population and workforce needs and will support our commitment to social accountability.

Looking ahead

Congress is now just around the corner and will include a range of education focused sessions and presentations, including opportunities to engage feedback on the early prototype emerging from the Taskforce work. 

If heading to Melbourne, I encourage you to attend these education sessions or visit the networking booth to say hello. I am especially looking forward to meeting trainees and hearing stories about your journeys in the new “Meet the Dean” session at lunchtime on Wednesday 6 May. Congratulations, as well, to all new Fellows who will be attending the Ceremony to receive their Fellowships. 

We welcome your suggestions about relevant data, emerging issues, or aspects of the Fellowship Program you believe should shape our future direction via education@ranzcp.org. Together, and using the evidence we are collecting, we can build a Fellowship Program that supports trainees, Fellows, and the communities we serve.

Warm regards,

Prof Andrew Teodorczuk

Executive Dean of Education